Chirbury hedgerows victory – for now

I was out strolling in the woods this morning when BBC Radio Shropshire rang asking to speak about the hedgerow row. I began to talk to Jim Hawkins not even knowing that the application had been withdrawn, Of course, I was elated to hear the news!

You can hear the interview in iPlayer at 2:22 minutes (until 23 January).

It is expected that the landowner will be back with more considered and smaller applications in the future. However, his withdrawal of the bid to grub out up to seven miles of hedgerow sends a message to landowners and farmers across the country that large-scale speculative applications will not meet with success.